05/ 30/ 2007
Congress will take up another union-backed bill later this year, while Big Labor works in the states to put paid sick leave on the ballots in 2008
The introduction of federal paid-sick-leave legislation offers further proof of an aggressive legislative campaign by pro-union forces, while an initiative in Ohio gives an early glimpse of the 2008 election strategy of those same groups.
Sen. Edward Kennedy (Mass.) introduced S. 910, the "Healthy Families Act," which would require small businesses that employ 15 or more workers to provide each employee with seven days of paid sick leave. A companion bill, H.R. 1542, which contains provisions similar to the Senate bill, was introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (Conn.). Both bills are currently in committees for consideration, and Congress is expected to act on them later in the year.
NFIB members oppose government mandates like paid sick leave because they force small-business owners to implement policies that may not be in their workers' best interest; employers should be free to do what's best for their businesses and their employees.
Of course, no business owner wants employees coming to work if they're sick or otherwise unable to work. However, a mandate to require paid leave assumes entrepreneurs don't currently offer flexible leave policies, which simply isn't true. According to an NFIB Research Foundation Small-Business Poll, small-business owners often successfully compete for employees on the flexibility they allow their workers. At the same time, market pressures ensure that employers will continue to offer leave regardless of any legislative action.
This type of legislation clearly is costly, inflexible and unnecessary for small businesses. Unlike a voluntary leave policy, there are serious issues with government-mandated paid-sick-leave proposals, including:
- Employers must keep paper records of the number of paid sick days given to each employee.
- It invites litigation, imposing significant legal costs on small business.
- Terms like "medical leave" and "serious health condition" are vague and hard to define, creating another administrative headache for employers as well as potential legal liabilities. According to NFIB's Legal Foundation, at least 36 federal courts have ruled invalid portions of 1993's Family and Medical Leave Act regulations, which contain similar terms (and from which NFIB won an exemption for small employers).
In the meantime, Ohio's Service Employees International Union District 1199, which represents 28,000 health-care and social-service workers in Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia, is pushing a proposal that would require Ohio companies with at least 25 employees to grant at least seven sick days a year. The issue could wind up as a ballot initiative in the November 2008 election, helping drive voter turnout as did state minimum-wage initiatives in 2006.
The union recently submitted a petition with 1,800 signatures to the state's attorney general. Under state law, at least 1,000 of the signatures must be verified as belonging to registered Ohio voters. Backers then need to gather 120,683 more, or 3 percent of the total vote in the 2006 gubernatorial election, to take the issue to the Legislature.
If the Legislature doesn't act, the petitioners could collect more signatures and put the issue before the voters.
